Autocratic Leaders Who Improve Their Countries

Introduction

Ed Ou for The New York TimesFormer President Bill Clinton and the Clinton Global Initiative have supported Rwanda under its current president, Paul Kagame, right.

A Human Rights Watch report recently linked Rwanda to war crimes in Congo, a disturbing mark against a nation that has been held up as an African success story. While Rwanda’s president, Paul Kagame, has improved the country’s economy and kept it stable in the wake of a brutal civil war, he has also been accused of being repressive and autocratic.

It’s not just Rwanda: The late prime minister of Ethiopia, Meles Zenawi, was praised by the West, but under his regime, journalism has been a dangerous pursuit.

How should an influential country like the United States navigate relationships with authoritarian regimes that have improved living standards in their nations, like Kagame did in Rwanda and Zenawi did in Ethiopia?